Adobe Products on Surface 3

I won't be doing my main adobe productivity on a Surface 3 but can anyone tell me how it runs Adobe products? I cannot find a single video of the Surface 3 running anything like Photoshop. I want to be able to open a PSD on it and edit it and be able to use Audition and Illustrator. Once again, not for my main productivity but for on the go.

Or do I just need to suck it up and get the Surface Pro? I really like the micro USB charging ability on the Surface 3, its portability, and it's price.

I feel you would do well to loo0k at the Pro. The Surface 3, though better than many other Atom devices is still an Atom processor . I haven't looked at Adobe's minimum requirements lately but I think you would be hard pressed to find the S3 components listed.

I won't be doing my main adobe productivity on a Surface 3 but can anyone tell me how it runs Adobe products? I cannot find a single video of the Surface 3 running anything like Photoshop. I want to be able to open a PSD on it and edit it and be able to use Audition and Illustrator. Once again, not for my main productivity but for on the go.

Or do I just need to suck it up and get the Surface Pro? I really like the micro USB charging ability on the Surface 3, its portability, and it's price.

And most of these desktop applications even work well. Under normal workloads—some web browsing, an Office application or two, Photoshop—Surface 3 hums along at what I’d call socially acceptable speeds. But then I have the 4 GB/128 GB version of the device. My admittedly non-scientific advice is that you will want this more expensive version if you intend to multitask at all: 2 GB is OK for tablets and low-end laptops, but you’ll want 4 GB of RAM for real work.​

Thankfully, and perhaps surprisingly, the Surface 3 is completely usable in desktop mode. That new Atom x7 chipset handles your average daily tasks with surprising aplomb.​

I used the Surface 3 as my main device for a few days, and 90 percent of the time, I didn’t notice a significant difference compared to my Core i5 Pro model. Right now, I have five pages open in Firefox and fifteen in Chrome. Adobe Lightroom and OneNote are loaded, and I’m setting the mood with some Jackson 5 in Spotify. I’m not experiencing any hiccups.​

Of course, once I start something really processor-intensive, the differences start to show. You won’t be satisfied if you’re editing a lot of video, nor if you’re working on really high resolution images with several layers. But then you’re also not who the Surface 3 is aimed at. If your day is largely spent in a browser (Chromebooks are a thing, after all) or Office apps, you won’t have a problem.​

That said, sticking to Modern apps when you can is a good idea. Besides generally netting you longer battery life (more on that later), they’re optimized for under-powered processors. For instance, trying to play a 4K YouTube video at full resolution in Chrome was laughably unsuccessful, but when I played the same content on the touchscreen version of Internet Explorer, it didn’t even drop a frame.​

Speaking of framerates, Intel says graphics on the Cherry Trail chipset are twice as good as on preceding Bay Trail models. It won’t provide a serious gaming experience, but it’s completely acceptable for Modern UI games, while some lighter PC titles run fine at low-to-middle settings.​

Asphalt 8 ran smoothly at the default settings, and I was impressed to find Portal 2 netted a fairly consistent 50-60 fps at a 1280 x 800 resolution even with most effects set to high (except when things got really busy). You might even be able to play some newer titles if you’re willing minimize most graphics parameters.​

One big performance disclaimer: Microsoft sent me the high-end $599 model, which comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. While the processor and other specs are identical, the 2GB model will surely fare worse at multitasking.​

Thank you for the awesome replies! The largest file I work with in photoshop is probably a 4k still image if not just 1920x1080 image. I do graphics for my church. Our projector is only 1024x576 and im mostly making things for our web site. The other big one is Audition for podcasts. Audition I dont see too much of an issue.

I was already planning on the 4GB model. From what you guys say I think it'll do fine for what I'm planning.

Now here is to hoping audition will do what this video shows it doing on a surface and as smoothy sometime soon (its so quick, you almost miss it, starts at 7 or 8 seconds in):

Great to hear more demanding software runs on S3 too- I like the design and from what I've read in reviews it seems to be worth considering. Part of me hopes for 14inch SP4 with active cooling, if MS would release such version along 12inch SP4, I would definately consider Surface 3 as my media consumption and editing on the go device to complement 14inch SP4 For now SP3 is perfect on its own, form factor and weight are okay

Can't wait for Windows 10, I think it will really help Surface devices release their full potential.